How to Make Replayable Gameplay | Critical Thought, Roguelike Design, Replayability
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- For today's critical thought, I spoke about creating replayable games using variance and how there is a difference between good and bad roguelikes.
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I'm Josh Bycer and I run the site Game-Wisdom, where I examine the art and science of games. Here on RUclips, I put out a variety of videos that consists of let's plays, examinations and more.
I think rewards are a good way to inspire the player to replay, after which variance comes in to keep the player motivated. This is why YuGiOh Duel Links has me replaying it so much more than most roguelike deckbuilders. While it's not perfect as it's weighted down by being an online free-to-play game, the mix of rewards (including some overall progression) and variety of decks I can build and play against is making it quite replayable.
Nice video, by the way.
And indeed the most boring decks in YuGiOh Duel Links are the ones that have like one win condition and/or a way to play certain cards no matter what which make every game feel the same. Those are decks that you use a few times and get bored of easily.
This is also why persistent elements that unlock more "stuff" are a really good motivator to keep people playing and seeing how they integrate into the game
1:09 "but there is a difference between replayability and creating variance"
1:19 "variance is the number of legitimately different ways there are to play"
2:16 "when we look at how progen works, and how replayability and variants are generated, just having content generation in itself, does not create replayability. "
4:17 "when it comes to content generation, the breadth vs depth, you can fill 3 groups of content with innumerable listings, but if they are all built on the same foundation, you are not really changing anything. "
4:41 "and this is why we see from a lot of games, that tend to go for mixing or shuffling elements around without adding a new stuff"
5:31 "doesn't matter how much you shuffle the environment around, or move rooms around, the same spike trap you see there, it has the same solution no matter where or when it shows up. "
6:10 "when you want to create variance in terms of content categories, you want to look at adding breadth to you game and not depth. "
6:59 "remember, for each category you add in, it's creating another foundation that you need to properly fill out. "
7:35 "the problem these games have ... what the player is doing, versus how the world is kind of changing or forcing different elements. "
8:03 "when the world is procedurally generated around, each biome is not going to be completely different each time you play it"
8:20 " what we see in open world, or these kinds of survival games, is that, progression is built on a fixed set of items that you need"
9:11 " I am still doing the same task, I need the same things every time I play it. there is no adaptability. there is no variance. "
9:26 "it doesn't matter if the world is procedurally generated bacause I'm still doing steps 1 through 8 on my checklist. "
9:57 "if you want your game to have replayability, you want to generate variance. "
10:04 "you need to be able to present to the player, legitimately different tactics and different ways of playing it. "
10:42 "what aspect is ramdomized or procedurally generated that works in smaller games (Hades, The Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon) that makes them feel so replayable in each run, despite not going as over the top as games open world games(Don't Starve, Minecraft) ?
12:01 "the answer is: ... the variance is focused explicitly on what the player can do in each individual run. and that is the key to having a lot of variance in your game. "
12:15 "introducing more enemy types, or more options, in each content category, is not changing those categories. "
13:05 "you have to adpt to what is going on, you cannot just use the same strategy again and again, bacause A: you can't guarantee you are going to get that, and
B: just because it worked one time doesn't mean it's going to work on whatever the game throws at you the next time. "
14:07 "each time I complete a run, or each time I play a run I'm getting a legitimately different strategy".
15:00 "but it gives you a greater chance of control and allows you to start to formulate a plan. "
15:53 "if you don't get the answer to each one of those strategies, you are not going to win. " (bad design)
16:08 "with Moster Train, and to a lesser extent Slay the Spire" ... "the bosses that I run into are different, I know at the start of a run, on Monster Train, who the final boss is going to be, but I do'nt know what my strategy is going to be until I start collecting cards for it. but it is something I need to prepare for, whereas with Slay the Spire, it's basically, here prepare your deck, ops, your deck is wrong for this boss? you are going to lose. and that can be very frustrating. "
16:38 "this is what makes creating variance so difficult, the builds, strategies, and options, they have to be good enough to work, but they can't be so game breaking, that literally getting one card, or one weapon and the entire run is over.
16:55 "conversely, it can't be so limited that, if I don't take all of these options, I just imemediately lose, it doesn't matter how great I'm at the game, it doesn't matter my build is superior, it's just not superior enough. "
17:20 "the variance or the procedural generation of a run, it's not tied to the player. it's tied to the environment." (is the problem with Spelunky)
17:39 "changing the environment, but not changing what the player is going to do in set environment, menas that, my strategy for play is fixed, every time. "
18:22 "what makes this very frustrating from a replayability standpoint is that, I know very quickly whether or not this run is going to be a serious contender. " (ex: in a Spelunky 2 run)
18:55 "people don't want to play a game where: they are going to lose 90% of the time, and that magical 10% at the end gives them the chance at winning. "
19:06 "they want to feel that every run has a legitimate chance at winning. and to do that, you NEED to give the player a variety of options. "
19:17 "so that, if itemA doesn't show up in a run, maybe itemB will be my saving grace. "
19:32 "I know what weapons I'm going to get, I know what items I'm going to need, BUT if they don't show up, or the game just gets me very unlucky with them, what can I do ?"
20:07 "the run becomes so focused on getting that one perfect play that nothing else really matters. "
20:37 "I don't need perfection to win, I cam make do, with a bad build, I can be godly with an amazing build, but at the end of the day, if I don't learn these games, I'm going to lose regardless. "
21:55 "True variance is about giving the player legitimately different options. It doesn't matter if the world is procedurally generated every time, if the player STILL must do the same exact things again and again.
22:15 "If you are interested in making a Roguelike, or making a game that is supposed to be very replayable, look at action roguelikes, look at even the traditional or classic style of roguelikes, that give you all matter of crazy weapons and possible combinations, and things that can just mess with your run, bacause, at the end of the day, in order to be variance, THE GAME SHOULD NOT BE PREDICTABLE.
22:41 "I should not know, the second I start playing a game, what I need to win. I should not have my win condition figured out within 20 seconds of play, or that I know that I must get these specific items. "
22:55 "When games can keep the player guessing, it leads to far more entertaining content, and leads to these games lasting longer. "
23:21 "Can you think of games that aren't considered roguelikes that have done an amazing job of being replayable, that give a high sense of variance from play to play? And that just make you keep playing these games, over and over again ?
Mastery and Variety are the two pillars of a game's longevity.
I really enjoyed the video, it gives a lot of ideas and tips about roguelike game design ! I just have 1 remark, I highly prefered the first part of the video, when I was seeing your face speaking to me, and a very small square with some gameplay illustrating what you were explaining. I kind of lose my concentration on the second part because of the spelunky gameplay. It was hard to follow your voice and watch the gameplay (I am not a native english speaker so I have to concentrate more in order to understand everything, and i never played spelunky so I was watching the game and it was really hard to understand what you were doing, grabbing the bow, just climbing up the stage, etc...
I hope this can help you improving (if I am not the only one in that case) ! But about the speech in itself it was really good so thank you for the video !
thanks for watching and the feedback. I try to show relevant footage, but I've been thinking about doing more switching between my cam and full footage on the videos.
Im trying to make next commercial project, but every genre has huge game on market, what should i do? I guess i need massive difference from competitors...
3:39
Very well said!
also besides gameplay narratively. there are games with good or bad endings. blah. but to me. I think Chrono Trigger, or Dragon Age or Fallout or Nier games are unique. is the narrative changes. maybe you chose a different team , alliance or Boss. and by giving players narrative choice the game can look different. like some of those games have 12 endings. which is insane.
needed this
amzing job being replayable but not rougelike?
Minesweeper